tjcruisers

I've held a few positions where I've had to do investigations on complaints (probably pushing close to triple digits). My one takeaway is there is always 3 sides to every story. Side A, Side B and the truth (somewhere between them, usually closer to the one having the complaint against them)

Never heard of that port, but after looking at it you've piqued my interest. Very unique

Seeing these passport questions come up on a weekly basis on this site, I do have a question. Why would anybody want to travel without a passport? It's not like it costs a ridiculous amount of money to get one

Yes, Adventure. They had the midship gangway and the front gangway on the starboard side. In front of each set of doors they had about 4 crew members with scanners to scan your set sail pass. They also had a crew member that dealt specifically if you had young kids. If your muster station was not in their area they directed you to the correct one, otherwise you'd point to you muster station sign, they scan and away you go. It added an extra maybe 5 minutes to get on, but well worth it

On our last cruise we had to walk by our muster station on embarkation where they were scanning. Couldn’t actually get into the ship unless the muster was completed.

Just got off the Adventure. I would say it was my least favourite cruise I've taken, I wouldn't say it was bad just my least favourite (maybe give it 7 out of 10). but I will cut all cruise lines some slack into next year when they're fully rolling again. For me it was a bunch of small things that kind of added up: soda machine not dispensing ice, limited selection in the soda machines, limited selection in the bar, quality of Johnny Rockets being worse than the windjammer, MDR chefs were experimenting with food combos with some not making sense, shrimp cocktail using extra small shrimp The crew were all great, ship was in good working order. We did notice the smoke smell from the casino. One the last day with when we could ask the captain question that came up and he mentioned they're going to be overhauling the ventilation system in the casino in the near future. Speaking of the captain (Jaret Barry) he is the complete opposite of every captain I met, I would definitely pick a cruise based on him captain again. He was very easygoing, friendly, meet him in the hallway he'll stop and talk to you for 1/2 an hour. The staff I talked to absolutely love him

Depends on the port if you want to get off. The cruise we just got off of you needed the passport book in Panama. Our cruise was an open circuit going from Bayonne to Galveston. Some passengers unfortunately tried using the passport card and got denied boarding (one guy managed to get on and then got escorted off the ship by security). For card and what I'm saying is coming 2nd hand, a bunch of the people in my wifes facebook group for the cruise claimed on day 2 they got an email from Royal saying that sometime in the new year they won't be accepting passport cards anymore. Might be something you want to confirm with Royal directly

If I remember correctly Matt did a video earlier in the year about communicating on the ships. There was trick you can use on the iPhones (if that’s what you have) that apparently worked with the free wifi.

Our cruise we just got off of was the first to disembark at the new Galveston cruise port. Many of us talking while waiting for the transfer to the airport was this port is going to struggle handling the Allure. Not sure when they are moving the Allure there, but would be something to take into consideration at least until they work out the kinks

For us it depends on the ship. On the smaller ships I just go with the flow. The Oasis class we schedule many things

FWIW just got off the Adventure for a 14 day cruise (left Oct 27th from Bayonne) hitting both Haiti and Honduras. Everybody was supposed to show a negative test, they never even asked for it on checkin or if you even did one, nobody was.

Something of that nature and seeing they didn't really cleanup properly, should have given you a FCC of the full amount

When's your check in/boarding time? I don't think they'll allow in the terminal unless you arrive sometime close to it (earliest I've seen is 11). Myself I do like getting the earliest check in time I can get

When our son was on medication needing refrigeration, didn’t know about making a request for a medicine cooler. What we did was bring a few zip lock bags and got the room steward to bring us ice. Filled the bags up and threw them in the fridge. Not only kept the meds cold, but everything else we stuck in there

Leggings would probably count. Coming from being involved in hockey all my life (player, coach, trainer), I wear jeans. While the skates available on the ship are somewhat dull, they'll still cut bare skin. The long pants provides a level of protection from that in case of minor situations i.e somebody doing a crossover and clips you. Whenever I went on the ship the majority skating aren't strong skaters, so you'll have a lot of people falling with their feet coming in the air which increases the risk of getting hit/nicked with a skate blade. The jeans would provide a little more cut resistance to leggings

I like it and I hope Royal follows suit. I usually hit the jogging track at around 6am and would see a large number of people go, place a book or something on a chair then leave. I've had some fun with it and at times have moved the belongings slightly on the chair, something obvious to me that I can tell the items hasn't been moved when I come back later (i.e. the top right corner of it touching the rail of the chair at a 45 degree angle). Some people don't come back to well after lunch

Depending on where we're going we might do an excursion or two or shopping. One thing is that they tend to blend into one another in the Caribbean. We've as well have stayed on the ship

From what I remember, no to the teen activities. I don’t recall if the had anything for 18-20

Stayed on the boardwalk twice, I don't remember it being overly noisy. I remember hearing the water show in the room, but that was about it (then again we were higher up). One thing I did notice is they seem to run warmer in the room and balcony. It's probably not getting as much air flow in those areas versus the outside balcony

I did it for our cruise in a few weeks. The flights did change a few times and we had to do some juggling. I didn't wait for our seat to be assigned by the airline, but rather paid to select our seats when everything was straightened out, only ended up being about $30 (concerned with overbooking could we get bumped otherwise). I don't recall there being an option for prepaying luggage. Doen shuttle a few times, one time booked it on the ship, this time our TA did it. I didn't see it on the cruise planner itself, might have to call Royal One thing is you have to use the same airline going both ways. In our case we fly into Newark, but back out of Houston, which didn't make it ideal

In the end you have to research the ship you're going on and the destinations. A lot of times that I hear complaints, usually just watching a few videos on the ship before booking it would point out those things

I always take my passport when leaving ship, even though they say you only seed your sail card. There was one place that was checking passports getting back on (think it was Bahamas) by the Bahamas authorties. Fortunately we had them.

I look at it as the passport is good for 10 years, the cost works out to $16 a year. It’s a great investment/cheap insurance policy if you happen to need to return home from one of the ports.

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/category/category/insurance travel insurance is really a must

You never want to see anybody lose their job. Having said that the cruise lines are all in survival mode right now. They had severe restrictions placed on them that no other business had to endure (at least none that I'm aware of) and were given no assistance other than to take on more debt. Unfortunately I can see more cuts coming